so i ordered my first mac

progmac

I had been using a free PC provided to on-campus residents for two years (at Ohio University) and needed to buy the first computer I have ever myself bought. For the past while, I had become so used to formatting my hard drive and fixing problems that I just accepted it....I used some Macs and realized this wasn't the way things have to be! So yeah...good story, go apple, etc.!



Anyhow, last night (i mentioned this in another thread) I ordered an 800 G4



here is what I ordered, seems like a pretty good deal to me, let me know any of your opinions:



G4 800

256MB Ram

40GB Hard Drive

DVD / CD-RW

Radeon 32MB DDR Dual



5GB FireFly Drive

HP 920C Printer

HP 315xi Digital Camera



total: $1654



seemed like a good price for lots of stuff...any opinions? I received a decent discount thanks to the education thing.



is using a digital camera with OS X as easy as apple brags it to be? I never have, and am very excited to start!



Additionally, how is the factory sound card on a G4. I'm pretty sure i didn't read much about it...



lastly, I got the lowest end video card, but it still seems like a nice card. is this the case? usually with a Dell, Gateway, etc. the lowest end of any feature sucks...that doesn't seem to be the case with apple though. i think they make sure everything is good.



also, i didn't get apple care--it wasn't in my budget. mistake?



later dudes

monsterjaeger

Congrats for getting your first Mac!



This is a pretty descent system you got. Feel my envy. :-) Yes, using a digital photo or video camera is as easy as Apple advertises it to be. For the stil shot, just plug it in, wait a second for iPhoto to load and click import. It's that simple. Organize to your liking, click on "share" and make a Photo Album that you can show off on you iTools member page. You have no iTools member name yet? Go get one! It's easy to use, it's free of charge, and you get a lot for the money. :-) To make your transition to the Mac easier, try to think natural. That usually is the opposite of the windows way of thinking. The most simple solution usually is the best and usually works as expected on the Mac.



Have fun!

progmac

thanks monsterjaeger!



also, i bouht a refurbished 17" apple studio crt graphite display for $230 shipped. anyone use one of these? honestly, i bought it simply to match the decor / feel of the pretty tower i mention above. good display?

buonrotto

Congrats! My only recommendation from personal experience is that an extra 256 MB of RAM (for a total of 512 MB) will really make the system smooth.



And, yes, the digital camera thing works really well with supported cameras (I'm almost positive yours is). The video card should be fine.



Let us know if you have any growing pains or if you have any questions. One thing that IMO lacks a bit on Macs is that the help system isn't as good as it used to be. (The old help had too much legwork for developers but really helped end users.)

progmac

i seem to like follow up questions, so i have one more:



apple said it will take ten days to customize my system before they ship. anyone think it might take less? as i'm sure you can understand, ten days seems like a lifetime!

ghost_user_name

[quote]Originally posted by sickmiller:

<strong>i seem to like follow up questions, so i have one more:



apple said it will take ten days to customize my system before they ship. anyone think it might take less? as i'm sure you can understand, ten days seems like a lifetime!</strong><hr></blockquote>



From my expreience it will take less time than advertised. I bought a Cinema Display and 733 Powermac and at first my wait was like 2 weeks for customization but it really shipped in 5 days!!! I hope you have the same luck.



Congrats on the new system!

paxan

Congrats for getting your first Mac!



iam sure you wont regret your choice

agraham999

As far as the extended warranty...Apple will offer it to you again right before your standard warranty expires...just call customer service and buy it then.



Personally I have had very few repair issues at all...and the small things I have had to fix...I bought on eBay and repaired myself.

stroszek

[quote]Originally posted by agraham999:

<strong>Personally I have had very few repair issues at all...and the small things I have had to fix...I bought on eBay and repaired myself.</strong><hr></blockquote>

Agreed.



[quote]Originally posted by monsterjaeger:

<strong>You have no iTools member name yet? Go get one! It's easy to use, it's free of charge, and you get a lot for the money. :-)</strong><hr></blockquote>

And your mac.com email address comes with this. i don't know if you ever used hotmail or not, but hotmail isn't going to allow you to pop mail for free anymore after sometime next month.



RANT//

You'll notice that the page title that used to say Hotmail- the worlds best free email (or something like that) now says Hotmail - more useful everyday. I guess MSN decided this was less of a lie than the former. ).

//END RANT



back to my point...you can do this for free with mac.com web mail.

progmac

so how many of you use your mac.com email address (and don't just forward?)



seems like a good email to use!

wormboy

I think you'll love the portable, but in my experience, the 17" Apple CRTs were shitty. At least the ones that were not completely clear (the Blue and white ones and the first grey ones). I would be wary of a refurbished one. I would have gone for the 15 " flat panel; Iit has about the same viewable area.

stroszek

[quote]Originally posted by sickmiller:

<strong>so how many of you use your mac.com email address (and don't just forward?)



seems like a good email to use!</strong><hr></blockquote>



i already had an address when i got the mac.com one, and didn't see the need to confuse everyone by switching. if i ever need to switch, i probably would use it. so far, the beta web mail has working like a charm whenever i toy with it.

ibrowse

I have a HP PhotoSmart 318, it's a decent camera, got it for christmas. Sometimes when I try to use it with iPhoto, it doesn't recognize the camera, because the camera has an option to connect as a camera or a mountable disk drive. I don't remember which one worked, but one didn't. To use it with the camera option would make sense, but I do remember it being a pain the first time I tried to get pictures off it.

(pain = took more than one try/more than two minutes) ..I've grown used to OS X, everything is simple.

ijerry

I use my mac.com account as my one and only account. It is a great service!! Plus it is noce to set up now that we will be getting instant messaging and your username will be the same as your mac.com account.



Congrats on the purchase. welcome to freedom.

ghost_user_name

[quote]Originally posted by sickmiller:

<strong>so how many of you use your mac.com email address (and don't just forward?)



seems like a good email to use!</strong><hr></blockquote>I've been using mine for over two years since the day Mac.com was announced at MWNY '00. I love it. It's reliable. It's fast. It's secure. And now it's accessible from any internet browser at <a href="http://http;//webmail.mac.com"; target="_blank">webmail.mac.com</a>. The 5 MB of mail space is plenty for hundreds of messages.



Of course, I use my mac.com address at my primary address and only give it to people I trust. I have a Hotmail account setup that I use whenever I have to give an address out online. It literally fills up to maximum capacity with SPAM in a matter of days. I just check it once every couple weeks to clear it out and make sure it's still active.



[ 06-12-2002: Message edited by: starfleetX ]</p>

microsoftosxp

I've used the g3 crt monitor, 17 inch and they seem to be good enough for every day use, just as long as your not doing a lot of high end graphics/video and stuff like that. The monitor you got was probably okay.

eman

Congrats on your G4. Great machine for a decent price.